message.
This "O Brother" is a very musical adventure through Depression-era Mississippi, based not so loosely on, of all things, Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey." The Coen brothers can do nothing normal.
The film takes off quickly when three daft convicts escape from a chain gang and make their way across the sun-soaked landscape to get to a buried treasure that their leader, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), hid long ago. The law is close on their heels, in the form of a demonic tracker who wants to return the escapees to the prison farm.
The men stumble into a series of adventures along the way, some taken from "The Odyssey" (a one-eyed man, three singing sirens). Others -- recording a hit song, meeting a famous bank robber -- are purely Coen.
Far-fetched as the story might be, the sharp casting avoids any pratfalls. Clooney, all wild eyes, fast talking and hair jelly, is hilarious as the conniving ringleader.
His dim-witted sidekicks, sweet-natured Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and temperamental Pete (Coen mainstay John Turturro), create amusing interplay. In particular, the unknown Nelson steals many a scene from his more famous costars.
Some of the trio's tongue-in-cheek adventures fall flatter than others, and it's not quite as consistently funny a movie as some of the Coen brothers' similarly zany comedies, like "Raising Arizona" or "The Big Lebowski." But "O Brother" makes up for what it might lack with heart and charm, sometimes absent from the sarcasm of the brothers' scripts.
The shining Deep South background also adds to the proceedings, giving the film a golden, easy-going mood very indicative of its setting. Most notable, however, is the wonderful soundtrack, full of great country blues traditionals and originals, from sad chain gang hymns to finger-pickin' banjo tunes.
It's hard to imagine "O Brother" playing to all tastes. While Coen fans will eat it up for its wry intelligence and clever staging, striking moments like a Ku Klux Klan dance number might not sit well with the unconverted.
